Efficiency enhancement of silicon solar cells using highly porous thermal cooling layer

Abstract

In summer season, temperature of solar panels increases thereby decreases the working efficiencies of the solar cells by a larger factor, sometime even up to 3–4%. The present research paper reports a carbon-based porous thermal cooling layer, which acts as a heat dissipating agent beneath the poly-crystalline silicon solar cell. The thermal cooling layer has highly porous structure with average interpore and intrapore size to be 6 µm–0.6 µm and 11.5 Å, respectively, which enhances the surface area (798.35 m²/g) and generates numbers of air channels within the sheet for higher heat dissipation. Thermal cooling layer’s thickness-dependent studies confirm that an optimum thickness of 14 mm shows the highest cooling efficiency. The thermal cooling layer beneath the solar cell decreases the working temperature of the cell up to 18.5°C. The open-circuit voltage recorded for the solar cell (with optimized thickness of thermal cooling layer beneath the cell) increases to 0.56 V from 0.52 V (device without thermal cooling layer) at real time condition, which leads to increase the working efficiency of the cell by 9.6%. The theoretically calculated and experimentally measured efficiency of the solar cell at various temperatures are compared and shows good agreement between experimental data and theory. This investigation reveals that the used thermal cooling layer can significantly improve the device working efficiency in a simple and cost-effective manner.